Article highlights:

  • Does digitising the guest experience make it less personal?
  • Are customers comfortable with digital personalisation?
  • Is a digital presence simply a ‘nice-to-have?’

The QSR restaurant industry is still in the early stages of its digital transformation with only about 15% of restaurants being ‘moderately digital’ to generate sales. Many factors combine to slow down the speed at which these channels are adopted – thin profit margins, rising food costs, supply chain issues, and fuel hikes being just a few. It’s hardly surprising then that so many franchises delay entering the digital space for their piece of the proverbial online pie. At the other end of the scale, consumer online adoption continues to skyrocket. So let’s unpack 3 myths that will help you make the move to digital.

Myth 1: Digitising the customer experience makes it less personal.

In the hospitality industry, personal touches cannot be underestimated. Far from being impersonal, digital touchpoints allow for a more personalised, warm, and engaging customer experience. Furthermore, they allow franchises to gain more valuable customer insights than ever before – for example, data collection and analysis, which leads to tailored recommendations based on customer preferences.

Myth 2: Customers are not comfortable with privacy-personalisation trade-offs.

This is simply untrue. Customers are already used to a myriad of personalised recommendations and embrace them eagerly. There is an abundance of highly successful digital platforms that reach out with personalised customisations to their customer bases daily. Amazon, Takealot, Spar, Checkers, Netflix, Showmax, Dstv, Superbalist – the list goes on. And they all customise brilliantly online because they know it works extremely well at generating revenue and increasing profit.

Myth 3: All touchpoints are equal, and digital transactions are ‘nice-to-have.’

Customers engage with restaurants through various digital channels like Google, Facebook, TikTok, and X (formerly known as Twitter). Simply put, if you don’t have a digital presence, you risk not interacting and engaging with customers which means you could lose orders to competitors. Remember, humanity is engaging online every single nano-second of the day – from the moment they wake up, to the moment they fall asleep, often with a mobile device still in hand! So placing your business in front of them makes very, very good business sense. This is where you truly get to educate, inform, entertain, and entice them. But there’s more to it than that. Just having a basic digital ordering system is no longer enough. Modern customers seek out brands that innovate and inspire. Place yourself at the forefront of digital innovation with YUMBI and you give yourself a better chance of positioning yourself like the leading digital brands do. Now that makes real business sense!

Customer benefits 

Understand how YUMBI helps the QSR customer journey.

In conclusion, how does this all actually combine to benefit your Gen X, Gen Z, and Millenial customers – and how does it benefit your business?

1.     They’ll better understand your brand.

2.     They’ll connect with your brand on a more personal level.

3.     They’ll appreciate your tailored recommendations.

4.     They’ll engage with you more often and with greater enthusiasm across various digital platforms.

Break through the myths and your customers and business will be all the better for it. And that’s a fact!